Thursday, June 10, 2010

Household Net Worth Up $1.1 Trillion In First Quarter

According to the Federal Reserve (via MSNMoney.com) the total household net worth in the country rose by $1.1 trillion in the first quarter of 2010. It increased to $54.6 trillion, which is still below the $64.4 trillion high in 2007, when the recession began.

Financial assets -- primarily stocks and mutual funds -- accounted for virtually all of the wealth increase, but the stock market has weakened in recent weeks, so those gains may be at least partially reversed in the second quarter.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index is down 8 percent since the end of the first quarter.

Americans pared debt at a 2.4 percent pace in the first quarter, the seventh consecutive quarter of declines in household borrowing. Mortgage debt dropped at a 3.8 percent rate, the biggest decline in records dating back to 1952.